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<h1 class="doctools_title">grammar::me_intro(n) 0.1 tcllib &quot;Grammar operations and usage&quot;</h1>
<div id="name" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="name">Name</a></h2>
<p>grammar::me_intro - Introduction to virtual machines for parsing token streams</p>
</div>
<div id="toc" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="toc">Table Of Contents</a></h2>
<ul class="doctools_toc">
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#toc">Table Of Contents</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#section1">Description</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#section2">Bugs, Ideas, Feedback</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#keywords">Keywords</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#category">Category</a></li>
<li class="doctools_section"><a href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="section1" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="section1">Description</a></h2>
<p>This document is an introduction to and overview of the basic
facilities for the parsing and/or matching of <i class="term">token</i>
streams. One possibility often used for the token domain are
characters.</p>
<p>The packages themselves all provide variants of one
<i class="term"><a href="../../../../index.html#virtual_machine">virtual machine</a></i>, called a <i class="term">match engine</i> (short
<i class="term">ME</i>), which has all the facilities needed for the matching and
parsing of a stream, and which are either controlled directly, or are
customized with a match program. The virtual machine is basically a
pushdown automaton, with additional elements for backtracking and/or
handling of semantic data and construction of abstract syntax trees
(<i class="term"><a href="../../../../index.html#ast">AST</a></i>).</p>
<p>Because of the high degree of similarity in the actual implementations
of the aforementioned virtual machine and the data structures they
receive and generate these common parts are specified in a separate
document which will be referenced by the documentation for packages
actually implementing it.</p>
<p>The relevant documents are:</p>
<dl class="doctools_definitions">
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_vm.html">grammar::me_vm</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Virtual machine specification.</p></dd>
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_ast.html">grammar::me_ast</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Specification of various representations used for abstract syntax
trees.</p></dd>
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_util.html">grammar::me::util</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Utility commands.</p></dd>
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_tcl.html">grammar::me::tcl</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Singleton ME virtual machine implementation tied to Tcl for control
flow and stacks. Hardwired for pull operation. Uninteruptible during
processing.</p></dd>
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_cpu.html">grammar::me::cpu</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Object-based ME virtual machine implementation with explicit control
flow, and stacks, using bytecodes. Suspend/Resumable. Push/pull
operation.</p></dd>
<dt><b class="package"><a href="me_cpucore.html">grammar::me::cpu::core</a></b></dt>
<dd><p>Core functionality for state manipulation and stepping used in the
bytecode based implementation of ME virtual machines.</p></dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div id="section2" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="section2">Bugs, Ideas, Feedback</a></h2>
<p>This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain
bugs and other problems.
Please report such in the category <em>grammar_me</em> of the
<a href="http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist">Tcllib Trackers</a>.
Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either
package and/or documentation.</p>
<p>When proposing code changes, please provide <em>unified diffs</em>,
i.e the output of <b class="const">diff -u</b>.</p>
<p>Note further that <em>attachments</em> are strongly preferred over
inlined patches. Attachments can be made by going to the <b class="const">Edit</b>
form of the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the
left-most button in the secondary navigation bar.</p>
</div>
<div id="keywords" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="keywords">Keywords</a></h2>
<p><a href="../../../../index.html#cfg">CFG</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#cfl">CFL</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#ll_k_">LL(k)</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#peg">PEG</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#tpdl">TPDL</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#context_free_grammar">context-free grammar</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#context_free_languages">context-free languages</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#expression">expression</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#grammar">grammar</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#matching">matching</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#parsing">parsing</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#parsing_expression_grammar">parsing expression grammar</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#push_down_automaton">push down automaton</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#recursive_descent">recursive descent</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#top_down_parsing_languages">top-down parsing languages</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#transducer">transducer</a>, <a href="../../../../index.html#virtual_machine">virtual machine</a></p>
</div>
<div id="category" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="category">Category</a></h2>
<p>Grammars and finite automata</p>
</div>
<div id="copyright" class="doctools_section"><h2><a name="copyright">Copyright</a></h2>
<p>Copyright &copy; 2005 Andreas Kupries &lt;andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net&gt;</p>
</div>
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